Since the Austrians and Russians were so slow, Napoleon planned to take his army directly into Austria, so that the Austrians would not be idle all day.

But Joseph stopped Napoleon.

"Napoleon, I don't mean to interfere with your military decisions, I just have some news that I need to tell you."

Joseph knew that Napoleon, a muddy boy, listened to himself more in other matters, but in the military, that guy was very conceited, and he looked like "I'm not against any of you" all day long, especially like to refute Joseph, so when Joseph now gives Napoleon military advice, he needs to give him a preventive shot first, so as to save him from making any flowers in order to raise the bar.

"Our people have discovered a large coal mine in the Rhine region." Joseph said.

"That's ...... How big is it? At first, Napoleon habitually wanted to say, "What's so great about that," but suddenly realized that the big coal mines ...... It's really, really, very important.

"It's very big, probably, probably bigger than all the coal mines found in France combined." Joseph replied, "Moreover, the place is very close to Lorraine. ”

"There are iron mines in Lorraine and coal mines in the Rhine region...... That's really ......" Napoleon clenched his right hand into a fist and pounded it in the palm of his left hand, and it was clear that Napoleon, who loved science, also understood the significance of the large coal mines and iron mines in one place.

"It's a pity that both places are in the north, and it would be nice if they were in Italy." Napoleon sighed again and said, "Well, Joseph, you want to take these two places under our control?" ”

"Of course, such a treasure land can only play its best role in our hands, right?" Joseph replied.

"I think it's not just this treasure land, but the whole of France has to be in our hands to play its best role." Napoleon said.

"You want to be Caesar?" Joseph said suddenly.

"No, our family needs a Caesar, and even France needs a Caesar...... And you, my brother, are always hiding backwards, trying to hide in the shadows, controlling the situation with a hand that no one else can see. It's safe and it's very Joseph, but Joseph, you have to admit it, it's not efficient enough. This is true even from a scientific point of view. In a system, the more intermediate transmission links, the lower the mechanical efficiency. Well, that's why you have to get that Zeus project. It's the same in politics, what you're doing now is actually artificially reducing our efficiency. I think it's time for me to step up and lead everyone. ”

"You're trying to usurp the throne!" Joseph said, "But...... Well, tell us about your plans. ”

"Not yet." Napoleon spread his hands together.

"What?"

"Of course." Napoleon said, "You just told me about the discovery." But Joseph, from what I know of you, you've probably already had your own ideas, well, tell me what you think. ”

Joseph glared at Napoleon fiercely, and after a while said, "Napoleon, I think we need a crisis, a crisis that will make the people up and down disappointed in the current government, a crisis that will make everyone up and down need a hero who can turn the tide." I studied the armaments in the north, and what we know about the enemy's investment now, and some of the relevant information you have also seen, and some of the latest ones, you can also take a look. ”

Napoleon didn't say anything, but just picked up the document and read it.

"The reason why I don't want you to attack immediately is because I am afraid that your early attack will cause Austria to have a big problem before our northern army has problems, and as a result, it will affect the northern battlefield, and instead relieve the siege of the north." Joseph said again.

"But if I wait like this, if I really wait until they gather the army, I won't necessarily take advantage of it." Napoleon spoke, "Archduke Karl of Austria, I have analysed him with you before. This person's level is very good. If we didn't have an overwhelming advantage in weapons in the last war, it might not be so easy to defeat him. And the commander on the Russian side...... Suvorov, hehe, Joseph, have you studied his examples and theories? ”

"No, I have a lot of things, besides, military affairs, aren't there still you?" Joseph replied.

"Suvorov was arguably the best commander of his time. You don't know anything about his examples and theories? Napoleon raised his eyebrows, and he was very happy to find an opportunity to laugh at his eldest brother.

Joseph ignored Napoleon's provocations and did not fight his opponents in familiar territory was one of the most basic principles that Joseph believed needed to be observed. So he asked, "So, how do you think he compares to you?" ”

"Compare ...... with me I haven't fought yet, but I'm a little excited to fight him. Napoleon said.

Napoleon rarely uttered such a thing, and from this it seems that he was "confident and unsure" in the war with Suvorov.

"So you want to defeat the Austrians before Suvorov arrives?" Joseph said.

Napoleon nodded.

"Think about it, wouldn't it be better if the guys in the north were defeated by guys like Braunschweig, and you could beat the likes of Duke Karl and Suvorov in Italy?" Joseph said.

"It's amazing that you have so much faith in me...... No, Joseph, do you have something good hidden that I don't know? Take it out, don't hide it! Napoleon said.

"There's something." Joseph said, "You will come with me to the institute to have a look?" ”

Not many people know what Napoleon saw at the Institute, but Napoleon didn't seem particularly happy when he left France for Italy. He is said to have said to Bertier, the chief of staff whom he had tried so hard to poach from Carnot: "The present war is really boring, and some obnoxious fellows have destroyed the beauty of war by some of the most brutal means." ”

Napoleon was accompanied to Italy by a batch of military supplies that Napoleon had just procured. As soon as he returned to Italy, Napoleon used these things and began to build entirely new fortifications.

On the other side, in the north, the combined forces of the Prussians and the British continued to strengthen. Thanks to the generosity of the British, Prussia mobilized quite quickly. Within a few months they had mobilized an army of 300,000 men, most of whom were new recruits and not very well trained, but the Prussians did not need to send them all to the battlefield against France, many of whom were to replace the troops used to suppress the Polish resistance in the Polish direction.

Compared to the Irish Independence Army, Poland's national independence movement performed quite averagely. The Polish nobles, who were determined to rely on them, could only make a small assassination, and the Polish nobles, on the one hand, supported them in making a small fuss, and preferably, put a little pressure on the Russians, Austrians, and Prussians, but not to make things too big, lest they be difficult to clean up. As a result, the targets of assassination were low-ranking officials and even ordinary soldiers. The actions against the top are even only intimidating in nature, and even if there is an opportunity to shoot, they can only be shot in the foot.

The effect of such a rebellion is naturally very limited. The Irish, who had already hung up a duke, and what about the Polish nobility who resisted it? Not even a colonel-level officer was killed.

The aristocratic faction did not do well, so what about the serfs? The results for the serfs were even worse. These serfs were basically people who had been away from Poland for a long time, and even had little to do with Poland except for their blood. They can say that they do not know anything about the state of affairs in Poland. Coupled with the rush to achieve results, they encountered even greater setbacks.

Indeed, even under the rule of the Russians, the life of the serfs was no less miserable. But the depth of the water and the heat of the fire are completely incomparable with when Poland was still an independent country. So when the Russians called, the serfs almost always felt: "God finally heard our prayers!" "Nowadays in Poland, if you ask which class is the most supportive of the foreign partition of Poland, it must be the Polish serfs.

Especially after the death of the Empress and the accession to the throne of Paul I, in order to show his progress, His Majesty the Tsar passed a series of decrees to protect the rights of Polish serfs, and also vigorously enforced them. Those old men in the past could no longer bully the serfs as they wanted, so in the hearts of the Polish serfs, the "little Tsar's father" was simply a saint second only to Jesus.

What, someone is agitating us against the "little Tsar Daddy"? Does the person who said this still have a conscience? And what, they say to give us complete freedom, to create an independent Poland free of serfs and nobility? Bah! What is independent Poland like, who of us hasn't seen it? Who are they lying about? Really, what the Poles say, that can also be believed? If the Poles could believe what they say, the sows would have gone up the tree! It's a complete fool of us, and it's okay to bear it!

As a result, those who went to incite the serfs to rebel were directly beaten by the serfs. In addition, the aristocratic faction took the opportunity to stab in the back, so the serfs were either killed or hanged, and the few remaining kittens and dogs ran back to France and cried.

So on the Northern Front, the Prussian army and the British army increased rapidly, and soon formed a clear numerical advantage over the French army.

The Prussians worked harder, and the British worked harder. The British knew that if they could not defeat France, they would not be able to solve the problem of Ireland. If Ireland, which is close at hand, cannot be solved, or if it can only be solved with all the necessary efforts, then the British hegemony in the world will be greatly affected, so the British are more active than the Prussians in the matter of attacking France.

The British also mobilized extensively at home, and quickly mobilized another 100,000 troops. In February 1798, 50,000 British troops landed at Emden and approached Munster along the Ames River, thus posing a great threat to the flanks of the French army stationed in Hanover.

In fact, the French army had long been aware of this danger. In a short period of peace, the French army began to build forts in Munster. However, due to various factors, by this time, the fortress of Montes was not fully built, and the firepower of the annexes was not fully in place.

The military-industrial production capacity of Britain was far from being comparable to that of Prussia. For this war, the British placed a large number of orders in one go to various artillery factories in the country.

The British's cannon tech tree is actually a bit crooked, at least for the time being, not very suitable for land warfare. Their artillery is mainly iron cannons, which naturally have the advantage of being relatively cheap, and the disadvantage is that they are relatively bulky compared with copper cannons. It is often difficult to keep up with the speed at which the army is marching. (Anyway, the main buyer of artillery in Britain was the navy, which was less sensitive to the weight of the cannon, but quite sensitive to the price of the cannon.) ）

But now in Munster, the French relied on fortresses for defense, while the British could rely on the Ems River for transportation. So at this time, the problem of inconvenient movement of artillery is not so prominent, and the advantages of cheap artillery and large production are revealed. Thus, only two months later, in front of the French line at the fortress of Munster, the British concentrated more than 400 cannons, including heavy cannons of more than twenty-four pounds. The French, on the other hand, had no more than 10,000 troops and less than thirty cannons in the fortress, and most of them were six- and eight-pounder guns.

The difference in firepower between the two sides made this offensive and defensive battle extremely unfavorable for France. During the long bombardment, the French suffered significantly more casualties than the British, and the loss of Munster seemed to be only a matter of time. And once Munster is lost, the French army in Hanover will be left alone.

Therefore, the French had to retreat from Hanover on their own initiative.

Since ancient times, retreat has been the most dangerous military action. A long-distance retreat, in particular, can easily turn into a rout. In the original history, in the first war of the Napoleonic Emperor's expedition to Russia, in fact, until the capture of Moscow, the French army did not suffer any losses on the battlefield. But when it came time to retreat, it was different, the Russian army pursued all the way, the French army lost its armor, and Napoleon's old foundation was almost lost on the way to retreat.

The French retreat was slightly better this time, after all, the distance was shorter, and there was no harsh winter. But losses in the retreat were still inevitable. General Jouber succeeded in retreating the main forces to the area around Liège. But his army lost almost all of its artillery and more than 40,000 men in these series of battles.

To be honest, in this series of operations, Rubert's performance was not bad, and many of his commands and decisions could even be called remarkable. But within a few months, the whole of Hanover was lost, and hundreds of kilometers were retreated, which was a huge failure anyway.

This series of failures immediately caused a stir in Paris.